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Showing posts from June, 2012

Whipped Yogurt Soup with Sauteed Courgette

Whipped Yogurt Soup with Sauteed Courgette Two days ago I was a little disappointed with Roopa Gulati . Today her reputation is being rehabilitated. I had a day off work and was in the mood for making soup. I've had my eye on this yogurt soup recipe for a while. And now that I have tamarind pulp and curry leaves, I was good to go. The other ingredients include dried red chillies, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, gram flour, turmeric, Greek yogurt, coriander leaves, onion, courgette and a green chilli. So I lined up my spices, diced the onion and courgette, and finely chopped the green chilli. Then it was time to start cooking. When the oil was hot I threw in the chillies and mustard seed. Next in were the fenugreek, cumin and curry leaves. I remembered reading somewhere that curry leaves will spit when thrown into hot oil: I was not disappointed by the miniature firework display in my wok. Next in was some gram flour followed by turmeric. The next stage was tricky because I did

Pineapple Broth with Cod

Pineapple Broth with Cod Perhaps recent enthusing about  Roopa Gulati 's recipes has tempted fate. Today's recipe was ... well ... a little disappointing. Her introduction to the recipe in The Soup Book states that this combination of South Indian and South-East Asian flavours is "a marvellous match" for any firm-fleshed fish or seafood. Those flavours are derived from onion, peanuts, coconut, ginger, coriander, sesame, cumin, poppy seeds, tamarind, turmeric, chilli, pineapple, lime and mint. Add caption I started by preparing the paste: chopped onion, peanuts, desiccated coconut, ginger and four different seeds (coriander, sesame, cumin and poppy) heated until the coconut darkened. When cooled, I put the mixture into my processor, but didn't have much luck creating a coarse paste. So I got out the stick blender and had a go with that. I then added the tamarind paste, turmeric and chilli powder, but the blender was no match for the tamarind paste. It ret

Pork Vindaloo Broth

Pork Vindaloo Broth Making Roopa Gulati's pork vindaloo broth from The Soup Book has been a two-day event. It began yesterday morning with my ruling out recipes because I didn't know where to get curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves . Eventually I decided upon pork vindaloo broth because I knew where I'd be able to obtain the necessary  tamarind pulp  if it wasn't available at the supermarket we use most frequently. The spouse was working outside Dublin so I had to take up the supermarket shopping slack. And what did I find in the spice section? Only dried curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves! Later on I had to accompany the younger offspring to a party in town and I planned to call into the Asian shops near the city centre in search of tamarind pulp or paste. I bought the tamarind on Drury Street before heading off to Lower Clanbrassil Street to see if I could buy fresh curry leaves or kaffir lime leaves. First I stopped into an Indian sweet shop the spouse had told

Asparagus and Mushroom Soup

Asparagus and Mushroom Soup It's two years to the day since I made an asparagus soup from The Soup Book  and on that occasion I was a little disappointed. If there's one thing I've learned in the last two and a half years, it's that some recipes work, some don't and some work splendidly. This recipe is by Shaun Hill . The ingredients include chicken stock, potato, leek, asparagus, olive oil, creme fraiche, butter and mushrooms. Well, he actually specifies morels  (fresh or dried) but I had no idea where to find any. There aren't any woods near my house or my office. I did check out the local organic food shop but no joy. They did have globe artichokes, however - maybe there'll be two soups this week.... So, I arrived home from work and unloaded the vegetables. I got changed and then started peeling and chopping. First into the stock was the chopped potato, followed by the asparagus and leek. When they were ready I put them into the blender and whizzed

Borscht

Borscht It's been just under a year since I made a beetroot soup from The Soup Book . A convert to hot beetroot, I'm still not sure about cold beetroot. Anyway, it's a weekday and a work day, but I thought I'd give this borscht recipe a go as the younger offspring would be home later than usual. It's a cold and miserably wet day, so what better than a hot flavoursome soup. The ingredients include butter or goose fat (I used up the last of a jar of duck fat), beetroot, onion, carrot, celery, a can of chopped tomatoes, garlic, vegetable stock, cloves and lemon juice. Having met Juno (my mother-in-law) for lunch, I dashed around the shops in the vicinity of my office. No fresh beetroot in the two supermarkets, so off with me to the organic green grocery. A nice little bunch of beetroot for €2.49. Where would you be going?! On arriving home I laid out the ingredients. The first job was to peel the vegetables before roughly grating them. Out with the faithful old